Broven,
John. Rhythm
& Blues
in New Orleans.
Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1983. +D Originally published in the
U.K. in 1974 as "Walking to
New
Orleans." The comprehensive, definitive story of the labels, artists,
clubs – the whole NOLA R&B scene – from the 1940s through the
early 1970s.

Emerson,
Ken. Always
Magic in the
Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era. New
York:
Penguin Books, 2006.
+D Very well
written, insightful
and entertaining portraits of all the key people who brought a new
level of
professionalism to rock and soul songwriting in the early 1960s.

George,
Nelson.
Where Did Our
Love Go?: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois
Press, 2007. (first edition 1987) +D Unauthorized and definitive story
of Motown the company as
well as the
performers, writers, and producers. Inside stories, pulls no punches,
excellent
writing.

George,
Nelson.
The Death of
Rhythm & Blues.
New York: Penguin Books, 2003. (first edition 1989) Deep analysis of
black music and culture. Traces progress
and triumph to mid-1970s, when, in George's view,crossover success and
conglomerate control squeezed the
lifeblood out of the music.

George,
Nelson.
Hip Hop America. New York:
Penguin Books, 1999.
Contextualizes rap music within hip hop, and hip hop within American
culture.
Music history with deep, sophisticated cultural analysis.

Gillett,
Charlie. The Sound of
the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. New York: Da
Capo Press, 1996. (first edition 1970,
revised and expanded 1983) +D The original and still the best
comprehensive
history of where rock & roll came from and how it developed.
Great
integration of facts into a coherent story.

Guralnick,
Peter. Sweet Soul
Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom.
New York:
Harper & Row, 1986.
+D Great writer telling a great story. The performers, the company men,
the
studio players, and the culture, all woven together into a beginning,
an arc,
an end, and overriding themes.

Hannusch,
Jeff.
I Hear You
Knockin': The Sound of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues. Ville
Platte,
LA: Swallow
Publications, 1985. +D Insightful
portraits of thirty-one of New Orleans' most important artists.

Hirshey,
Gerri.
Nowhere to Run:
The Story of Soul Music. New York: Da
Capo Press, 1994. (first edition 1984) History of both city soul and
southern
soul based on scores of interviews. Hirshey masters the art of letting
the
great soul singers tell their stories in their own voices.

Marcus,
Greil
(Ed.), Stranded:
Rock and Roll for a Desert Island. New York:
Knopf, 1979. +D Essays from tweny rock critics
on the one album they'd pick, plus Marcus' own extensively annotated
discography.

Marsh,
Dave. The
Heart of Rock
& Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New
York: Da
Capo Press, 1999.
(first edition 1989) Antidote to commentary focused exclusively on
albums.
Stories about how each song speaks to Marsh, with recurring themes. The
one
book I return to most frequently.

Miller,
James. Flowers
in the
Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll 1947 – 1977. New York:
Fireside, 1999. +D Uses
dozens of "critical
moments" over three decades to look with great intelligence and passion
at
the evolution of rock and roll as music and as a cultural force.

Palmer,
Robert.
Rock & Roll:
An Unruly History.
New York: Harmony Books, 1995. +D Ten chapters of "creative
flashpoints" plus three essays on"ongoing traditions," together
revealing "the music's
transformative powers." As insightful as any narrative history I know
of.

Werner,
Craig. A
Change is Gonna
Come: Music, Race & The Soul of America. New York:
Plume, 1999. +D A
mind-stretching, comprehensive story of black music in its
larger social context. Powerfully explicates the gospel (community),
blues
(individuality), and jazz (reinvention) impulses in black popular
music.

Aeppli,
F. Heart
of Stone: The
Definitive ROLLING STONES Discography, 1962-1983. Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Pierian
Press, 1985. Includes all songs recorded by the group or its members
"that
found their way onto record or film," officially or otherwise, through
December 1983. Organized by recording sessions.

The
Beatles. Anthology.
San
Francisco, CA: Chronicle
Books, 2000. Brilliantly designed and edited to integrate individual
interview
excerpts and 1300 illustrations into a reasonably coherent and utterly
captivating
story, as if the four lads were telling it themselves. In effect, The
Beatles'
autobiography.

Castleman,
Harry, and Podrazik,
Walter J. All Together Now: The First Complete BEATLES
Discography
1961–1975.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1975. Complete history of The Beatles (and
solo
works) on record through 1975, organized by release dates. Clearly
marks first
release of each track.

Cross,
Charles
R., and the editors
of Backstreets
Magazine. Backstreets: Springsteen: The Man and His Music.
New York:
Harmony Books, 1989.
Great insider stories and photographs plus complete 1966-1988
sessionography
and complete 1965-1989 catalog of live performances with occasional set
lists.

Gordon,
Robert.
Can't Be
Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. New York:
Little, Brown, 2002. +D From
beginning to end, in the studio
and on the road, a comprehensive and enlightening biography.

Guralnick,
Peter. Last Train to
Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. New York:
Little, Brown, 1994. Meticulously detailed
research. Deep storytelling. The definitive biography of Elvis Presley
up to
his mother's death in 1958. A companion volume traces the last two
decades of
Presley's life.

Guralnick,
Peter. Dream Boogie:
The Triumph of Sam Cooke. New York:
Little, Brown, 2005. +D Outstanding story of the man, his
music, and his signficance in the history of R&B and black
culture
generally.

Lewisohn,
Mark.
The Beatles
Recording Sessions: The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes
1962-1970. New York:
Harmony Books, 1988.
(last republished 2006) Day-by-day diary of each session with
commentary on who
played what, how one take led to another, what was done and left
undone, etc.

MacDonald, Ian. Revolution
in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Third Edition.
Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2007. +D Unique, rigorous, brilliant
analysis of both the 1960s cultural revolution and
the music of all 241 Beatles tracks, masterfully interwoven to assess
and explicate their mutual influence.

White,
Timothy.
Catch A Fire:
The Life of Bob Marley. New York:
Henry Holt, 1989. (first
edition 1983) +D Deeply
researched, very well written story of Marley's life and of reggae
culture.
Definitive biography.

Propes,
Steve. Those
Oldies But
Goodies: A Guide to 50's Record Collecting. New York:
Macmillan, 1972. Some material on rare
records, record labels, sources, and publications, but mainly tons of
artist
discographies with label and number and year of release.

Propes,
Steve. Golden
Oldies: A
Guide to 60's Record Collecting. Radnor, PA:
Chilton, 1974. Some material on record
collecting, themes in 60's music, and reissues, but mainly tons of
artist
discographies with label and number and year of release.

Ruhlmann,
William. Breaking
Records: 100 Years of Hits. New York:
Routledge, 2004. Narrative history of pop music and the
industry, organized by decades, integrating musical, commercial, and
technological developments into a coherent story of how and when major
shifts
in focus and emphasis occurred.

Brown,
Tony,
Kutner, Jon &
Warwick, Neil. The Complete Book of the British Charts:
Singles and Albums. London:
Omnibus Press, 2000. Just
what the title says, through the end of the 20th century.

Elrod,
Bruce C.
Your Hit Parade
& American Top Ten Hits. Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Popular Culture, Ink., 1994. The only source for
the weekly survey results performed on "Your Hit Parade" on radio and
TV from April 20, 1935 through June 7, 1958. Combined with Billboard
chart
results 1958 – 1994 in this book.

Whitburn,
Joel.
Top Pop Albums
Seventh Edition (1955 - 2009).
Menomenee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2010. These five books compile
Billboard data
(entry date, peak position, total weeks) from charts listed in their
respective
titles. The R&B book includes hip-hop recordings. Each one is
organized by artist and title entry date, and
includes a
wealth of indexes, summaries, and supplementary information. They are
invaluable
tools for any serious music history research.

Whitburn,
Joel.
Billboard Hot 100
Charts: The 2000s.
Menomenee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2010. These seven books are
direct reprints of original charts at somewhat reduced size. Each book
includes an index of titles with each title's chart debut
date.

Marsh,
Dave
& Bernard, James. The
New Book of Rock Lists. New York:
Fireside, 1994. (first edition 1981) Hundreds of great
lists, often with attitude, updated to embrace hip-hop as well as rock
and
soul.

Plagenhoef,
Scott &
Schreiber, Ryan (Eds.). The
Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present.
New York:
Fireside, 2008. Some
would say the Pitchfork of today
occupies the same cultural niche that Rolling Stone
did once upon
a time. The shift from
albums to songs here says it all.

Frame,
Pete. Rock
Family Trees. New York:
Quick Fox, 1980. The
first of his series of four meticulously researched and drawn "family
tree" histories of rock groups and broader musical family connections.

Hilburn,
Robert. Corn Flakes With
John Lennon And Other Tales From A Rock 'N' Roll Life. New
York:
Rodale, 2009. A riveting
memoir by the former Los Angeles Times critic,
full of
intimate, revelatory reflections of
interviews with Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, and
many
others.

Katz,
Mark. Capturing
Sound: How
Technology Has Changed Music. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 2004. From
earliest phonographs through turntablism, sampling, and digital files,
an intriguing
study of how technology – and how we adapt to it – changes music
and what it means to us. Includes a full CD of examples

Knopper,
Steve.
Appetite for
Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the
Digital
Age. New York:
Free
Press, 2009. Effectively recounts all the missed opportunities,
blunders, and
blinders that pushed the music business into a downward spiral over the
last
decade.

Levitin,
Daniel. J. This
Is Your Brain
on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York:
Plume, 2007. Rocker-turned-neuroscientist
makes the case that music is fundamental to the human species.

Milner, Greg. Perfecting
Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music. New York:
Faber and Faber, 2009. In his own words, "the story of what
it means to make a recording of music--a representation
of music--and declare it to be music itself." Includes a superb chapter
on the Loudness War.

Ochs,
Michael. 1000
Record Covers. New York:
Taschen, 2001. A
spectacular collection and juxtaposition of album cover art of the
twentieth
century, unexpurgated, with designer credits when known.

Peellaert,
Guy
(illustrations) &
Cohn, Nik (text). Rock Dreams. New York:
Popular Library, 1973. Out of print. Last
republished by Taschen in 2003. A brilliant imaginative history told
through
colorful, surrealistic portraits of rock and soul icons as fantasized
and
fetishized by their audiences.

Weinberg, Max with Santelli,
Robert. The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers.
Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1984. Reprinted by Billboard
Books, 1991. Just what the title says. A different perspective on rock
musicianship and rock history. A fun read.

Allmusic
[ http://www.allmusic.com/
] is the largest
music database on the internet, featuring high-quality reviews and
discographies of countless artists from just about every musical genre
and era
to date. As one of my first go-to sources, this website now supersedes
its own
All Music Guide books as well as older, excellent album review books
from Rolling Stone
editors and from
Robert Christgau.

Robert
Christgau [ http://www.robertchristgau.com/index.php
] has written pithy album reviews regularly as "Consumer Guides"
since 1969. For over three decades he supervised the Village Voice's
annual
Pazz & Jop critics' poll, which has been a mainstay of my music
collecting
research. Now all his reviews and essays, annual poll results, and more
are
available at this site.

Metacritic [ http://www.metacritic.com/music/
] is the preeminent consolidator/aggregator of current album reviews,
with music
archives back to 2000. The site provides capsule scores, headlines, and
links
to reviews from a wide range of primary sources. It was my go-to source
to browse
new album releases and follow links for more information on promising
ones, until it reinvented itself in summer 2010 and became much less
user-friendly.

Paste [ http://www.pastemagazine.com/
]
editors have eclectic taste in music, with a solid alternative/indie
slant. The
magazine also covers books and movies.

Pitchfork [ http://pitchfork.com/
] seems to be today's
cultural equivalent of what Rolling Stone was Back In The Day. Full of
music
news, reviews, features, and lists.

Rolling Stone [
http://www.rollingstone.com/
] covers
movies and politics as well as music, with news, reviews, features, and
extensive archives serving well the needs of its core Baby Boomer
audience.

The Second Disc [
http://theseconddisc.com/
] specializes in news and reviews of back catalog releases; in their
words, "if it's reissued, remastered or expanded, you'll find it here."

Please
pass on your experiences
and suggestions for sites to add to or subract from this list in the Recommended
Websites discussion. If not obvious,
please mention which category of websites you're commenting on. Thanks!

60s Garage
Bands [ http://www.60sgaragebands.com
]
documents 1960s garage bands from the well-known to the most obscure,
and
provides news and information on the current scene for garage band fans.

Backstreets [ http://backstreets.com
] is the online home
of Backstreets Magazine, the world's largest community of Bruce
Springsteen
fans.

Bobdylan.com [ http://bobdylan.com
]
is the official
Sony/Columbia Bob Dylan website, including a complete discography and
song
lyrics database, news, tour information, discussions, and (of course) a
store.

Brucespringsteen.net
[ http://brucespringsteen.net
] is the
official Sony/Columbia Springsteen website. Thanks to a cooperative
arrangement
with Backstreets.com, the official site includes excellent running tour
updates
as well as the usual record company support, discography, song lyrics,
etc.

Electric Dylan
[ http://www.rdf.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
] is devoted to the three great Dylan albums from 1965-1966, focusing
on the
many different versions that have appeared over the years. Roger Ford's
articles are detailed and fascinating on a variety of topics, like
differences
between mono and stereo versions.

Expecting Rain
[ http://expectingrain.com
] is one of the
pioneer websites dealing with Bob Dylan, his influences, lyrics,
records, and
the latest concert reviews. Archives back to the previous century.

Please
pass on your experiences
and suggestions for sites to add to or subract from this list in the Recommended
Websites discussion. If not obvious,
please mention which category of websites you're commenting on. Thanks!

Blogcritics [ http://blogcritics.org/music/
] is a good source
for a variety of selected bloggers'
album and concert reviews, with an easy way to search the site's
complete
archives on any act or topic of interest.

Blogs.com
[ http://www.blogs.com/entertainment/music/
] is a blog aggregator featuring top ten lists of other websites in a
variety
of music categories, such as "10 Great Music Blogs" and "10
Great Digital Music Blogs" (no overlap), as well as recent personal and
newsy posts from a variety of bloggers.

The
Lefsetz Letter [ http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
]
expresses the personal views of Bob Lefsetz, a music industry analyst
with
strong opinions about such issues as downloading, copy protection,
pricing, and
the music itself. He's been publishing it for over 25 years, as a blog
since
2005. Always a good read.

I'd
like to add at
a few more individual bloggers to this list. Please
pass on your suggestions in the Recommended
Websites
discussion. If not obvious,
please mention which category of websites you're commenting on.
Thanks!

Acclaimed Music
[ http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/
]
synthesizes hundreds of lists of critics' ratings of songs and albums
into
consensus all-time lists, each then broken down by year and decade, and
by
artists. Intentionally weighted to give more recent music a boost,
which may or
may not make sense to you. A Herculean effort.

Both Sides Now
Album Discographies [
http://www.bsnpubs.com/discog.html
] provides an amazing set of comprehensive album discographies of
American
record labels from A&M to Zephyr, including all but the largest
companies,
thanks to the original research of Mike Callahan and his colleagues.

DigitalDreamDoor.com
[ http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/music0.html
] contains dozens and dozens of well-done "greatest" lists of all
musical genres and eras, compiled by the site's editors, together with
a forum
to discuss what changes you think should be made within each list.

The Heart of
Rock and Soul [ http://www.lexjansen.com/marsh/index.htm
] is an interactive version of Dave Marsh's book. All the data about
"The
1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made" and 100 of Marsh's essays are compiled
into a database that lets you slice and dice lists by year, artist,
label,
writer, and more. You can also access several very cool lists of
R&B and
country songs from the same web page.

Rocklist.net [ http://rocklist.net/
]
is a massive compendium
of end-of-the-year lists, personal lists from critics including Dave
Marsh and
Robert Christgau, and a great variety of genre lists, with a global
site search
to help you find particular artists, songs, or albums. A list-lover's
dream.
Beware of time suck danger!

Rubin's
Rock n Roll
Reference Discography [ http://www.rockmusiclist.com/
]
provides a comprehensive, searchable database of songs including
artist, album,
year, and occasional notes and quotes. If you know one of these facts
and are
looking for the others, this site aims to help you out. A labor of love.

Please
pass on your experiences
and suggestions for sites to add to or subract from this list in the Recommended
Websites discussion. If not obvious,
please mention which category of websites you're commenting on. Thanks!

Amazon.com [ http://www.amazon.com/
] began previewing and selling mp3 files within its music store in 2007
and now competes aggressively with iTunes for digital market
share.

Collector's
Choice Music [ http://www.ccmusic.com/
] is an especially
well-organized online store where you can hear samples of and buy CD
reissues of
every
genre and every era, including imports and custom releases.

iTunes [ http://apple.com/itunes
] is by far the
leading retailer of digital music files. You must download iTunes
software from
the Apple.com site before you can shop at the store.

Last.fm [ http://last.fm
] recommends new music to you based on what you listen to. One of a
pair of these sites, the other being Pandora.

Napster [ http://Napster.com
] is
a subscription service
where you "Listen to everything, buy what you want."

Pandora [http://pandora.com
] is an automated music recommendation and internet radio service. By
extrapolating from the "musical DNA" of songs you like, Pandora
generates streaming playlists customized to your taste. One of a pair
of these sites, the other being Last.fm.

Rhapsody [ http://Rhapsody.com
]
was the first online music
service to offer streaming, on-demand access to a large catalog of
music.

Please
pass on your experiences
and suggestions for sites to add to or subract from this list in the Recommended
Websites discussion. If not obvious,
please mention which category of websites you're commenting on. Thanks!

Ace Records
(U.K.) [ http://www.acerecords.co.uk/
] is a
company devoted to making musically rewarding and sonically beautiful
reissues
of classic rock and soul music and more. A wonderful site to visit.

Bear Family
Records [ http://www.bear-family.de/
] is famous
for creating amazing box sets: nowhere in the world can you find more
lavishly
researched, documented, and musically faithful collections of an
artist's
complete recordings. They take the same top-of-the-line approach with
all their
products.

Green Book of
Songs by Subject [ http://www.greenbookofsongs.com
] is
a searchable database of over 115,000 songs organized under 2200
searchable
song topics. Start with a topic, find all the songs that fit. Unique
and
exhaustive. Requires an annual subscription. Last print version was
published
2002.

Hypebot [
http://www.hypebot.com/
] reports on "music. technology. the new music business." It might be
the antithesis of Billboard in the view of the music business one gets
from reading it.

Record Research
[ http://www.recordresearch.com/
] is
the website to learn about and purchase all of Joel Whitburn's books
that
compile Billboard chart data under his exclusive license with them. A
fun site
to visit even if you're not in the market for these books.

Top 40 Music on
Compact Disc [ http://www.top40musiconcd.com
] is an
easily searchable database of over 24,000 domestic CDs containing at
least one
Top 40 hit. Find which CD(s) contain(s) which song(s), with key details
on all
versions. Updated frequently and available only on a yearly
subscription basis.
Last print version was published 2004; it got too large for hard copy.
I
couldn't do my work without it.

Who Sampled [ http://www.whosampled.com/
] is building the
ultmate database of sampled music and cover songs. Constructed to help
you hear
precisely how and when each sample is used in the cover version –
"exploring and discussing the DNA of music" – this site is
highly interactive and educational.

Please
pass on your experiences
and suggestions for sites to add to or subract from this list in the Recommended
Websites discussion. If not obvious,
please mention which category of websites you're commenting on. Thanks!